


Push and Pull

by anasta



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-10-29 10:06:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10851753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anasta/pseuds/anasta
Summary: Korra and Asami in the days and weeks after Kuvira's invasion.





	1. No one met her on the ground

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this first chapter a year or so ago, before any of the Korra comics were released, and had a lot of anxiety to work through before I could make any more progress. The story is probably canon non-compliant by now, but I thought I would upload it anyway. :)

The worst part of Hiroshi’s death was probably the way it sounded. The almighty creaking noise of the enormous arm, moving towards them in agonising slow motion, whistling through the air as it reached down to swat them away. The nauseating buzz of the high-pitched plasma drills. The sudden vacuum as Asami fell backwards, and then the rush of air that filled her head with gushing white noise. The crunch of the Hummingbird and all her father’s bones at once. The sickly whine as the Hummingbird slipped wetly, redly, from the robot’s leg down to the street below.

Asami followed it gently down, floating like a feather. She barely registered hitting the ground or extracting herself from the ejector seat. No one met her on the ground, and if anyone called out to her she didn’t know it. She ran mindlessly over to the remains of the Hummingbird. The street around her was ruined and covered in rubble and she tripped several times over broken pieces of brick or raised strips of asphalt. She twisted her ankle slightly on a bent streetlight, and felt only irritated that that she could be so clumsy. She needed to find him.

The Hummingbird had come to rest beside a building, and Asami stood beside it with her heart pounding. She had felt this kind of icy terror inside her before, but this was like beginning it all over. Was it possible to get used to losing people? Maybe coming to find him was a mistake. The Hummingbird was only a confused tangle of metal pieces and nothing recognisable was left of Hiroshi. Pieces of him were everywhere, more liquid than solid, colouring the Hummingbird and the ground with a slick red sheen. She saw something that looked like the shattered remains of his glasses, but she couldn’t see any of his face. She could only see masses and knots of red.

Asami found herself falling, hitting the ground too hard as her stomach rose and twisted. She vomited violently, feeling the acid burn her nose and throat. She wasn’t sure if she was crying. She was glad that her body had decided on a reaction for her. She was sick for so long she could barely see the street below her.

After the retching subsided, Asami lay on the ground for a long time.  The sun was bright but the stones under her were very cool, and she liked the way they felt against her face. She liked the sun on one side of her face and the stones on the other. It was nice. She felt like she should stay that way until someone came to help her fix things. She knew, distantly, that things were very wrong.

Many minutes passed. Hundreds of minutes? She shifted slightly, trying to burrow into the concrete and feeling something soft and wet on the back of her hand. It was spongy and round, and rolled softly when she moved her hand. She wondered what it was.

 _Oh, fuck._ Panic flooded into her and her brain switched cleanly back on. _Fuck get the fuck out of the street Asami you’re lying on bits of your fucking father._ She dragged herself into a sitting position and scrambled frantically backwards, her body white with terror. She needed to be out of this street. She needed to be away from the Hummingbird.

Eventually she backed into the side of a building, where she was forced to stop. She was briefly confused about what to do or how to get up, but when she looked around for help, but there was nobody.

 _Fucking typical_ , a small and automatic part of her brain quipped. She was shocked at how angry she felt.

_That’s not helpful. There’s a giant death robot destroying the city._

_Of course there is, and everybody is too busy saving the day to give a shit about Asami, and now I’m alone and no use to anyone again and I’m probably covered bits of Dad’s fucking brains oh fucking shit oh no oh shit_

She began to scream, softly at first. It was like beginning to cry, but the sound became stuck in her throat and grew into a painful wailing noise that she had never heard herself make before. She felt like a child. She longed for someone to wrap their arms around her, to take her away from the body of her dead parent and to hold her. Be with her. She wailed because there was nothing else that she could do. The sound crowded out the gentle footsteps on the pavement.

“A…Asami?”

It wasn’t who she wanted – it was Opal Beifong. She landed lightly on the ground and knelt beside Asami. “Are you hurt? What’s going on?” When Asami didn’t answer, she held out a timid hand, but her touch on Asami’s shoulder was firm. She looked around at the street and the Hummingbird, and back to Asami.  Asami’s wailing became quieter, but wouldn’t seem to stop. Opal looked terrified.

“Asami, I don’t think you should be here.”

Asami nodded.

“Asami, you’re covered in blood.”

That made sense.

“You need to stand up. It’s not safe here.” Without waiting for an answer, Opal airbent Asami up from the wall, pulled her over her shoulder, and dragged her through streets and around corners to a tiny courtyard in the old Fire Nation quarter. It was empty except for a fountain in the centre, which was running as serenely as ever like nothing in the city was amiss.

Opal sat Asami down on the edge of the fountain and splashed water unceremoniously at her face. Asami spluttered, and Opal laughed. The sound was so alien that Asami could only stare at her.

“Sorry”, Opal said, smiling. “I don’t want to be rude. I know that you’re…well.” She gave up on conversation and held out her hands, cupped full of water. “You should wash up.”

Asami let Opal pour the water into her hands. She splashed it all across her face, shuddering when her hands came away sticky and streaked with bodily fluids. She suddenly remembered throwing up all over the street, and realised how disgusting she must have looked. She looked to Opal to apologise, but Opal was already smiling and offering another handful of water.

They transferred the water from the fountain to Asami’s body that way, slowly and rhythmically, until Asami felt clean enough to stop. Her hands were shaking so badly that most of the water was lost on the cobblestones. Opal offered to dry her off, surrounding her with a gentle gust of warm air. When she sat back down against the fountain, Asami felt the same cavernous emptiness in her chest, but no need to cry. She took Opal’s hands and gripped them tightly in her own, probably too tightly to be comfortable.

“Thank you.” Her voice was robotic.

“Of course. I’m just glad I found you. You couldn’t stay out there with nobody with you after…that. Asami, I’m so sorry.”

“You know what happened?”

“I saw it.” Opal’s face was almost guilty. “We all saw it. Everybody had to keep moving to take down the colossus, but I saw you going down and I thought I should find you. I had to fly around a few times. Sorry it took me so long.”

“It doesn’t matter. I should probably get going anyway.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You still look terrible.”

Asami smiled, out of habit rather than emotion. “I can’t stay here.”

“There's nothing we can do while the colossus is still out there."

"I can't stay here."

"Where will you go? Do you have a plan? Do you have some sort of machine or something you’re going to use?”

 _What the hell does it matter to you,_ the vicious voice in Asami’s head replied. She glared at Opal, whose face was neutral, as serene and sweet as ever. Her eyes widened as she saw how angry Asami was.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to be intrusive, I just - ”

“It doesn’t matter”, Asami said again. “Don’t – it’s – it doesn’t matter.”

She was disgusted with herself. The feeling washed through her like a wave. She was angry at herself for upsetting Opal, who had come to find her for no reason other than to be kind. Opal who barely knew her, who was sorry for leaving her alone for too long, who was so pretty and so kind. Opal should have been with Bolin, with her mother or her father or her brothers. She should have been with someone she loved. Asami felt worthless.

She was angry at herself for sitting here, shaking and doing nothing, hiding in some side street while the war still raged across town. She stared at her feet and decided over and over to do something, then shrank in fear at the thought of standing up, of taking a breath, of making a decision. She stayed where she was and hated herself. She hated the sound of the fountain. She didn’t hate Opal, whose hands she still clutched desperately in her lap. She felt like that was a redeeming feature, that she didn’t hate everybody. The thought was so ridiculous and so self-indulgent that she started to laugh. The laughter was angry and poisonous, and turned to tears before she knew how to stop it.

Opal put her arms around her and held her tightly as she cried, the sobs wrenching themselves from her body. She curled into herself, folding herself down as if she could shrink herself smaller and smaller and eventually disappear altogether. The noises she made were ugly, too raw and too loud, but she soon stopped noticing. She cried, and Opal held her, and the fountain trickled peacefully behind them.

The feeling was so painful, so physically painful that it was overwhelming. She couldn’t tell her emotions apart any more. They had changed from a recognisable progression – shock, fear, sadness, guilt, anger, disgust, repeat – to an overwhelming, burning sense of despair. She felt like she might actually die, like she had suffered an injury to a vital organ that might be invisible, but would surely bleed out and kill her.

“I can’t believe he did it,” she said, ten or so minutes later. The wave of emotion had subsided, leaving her feeling empty again. Her voice had returned to the lifeless monotone that she could tell Opal was afraid of, but she was grateful to be feeling nothing again. “I don’t understand how you could do that to someone.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he left me. Worse than that, he pushed me away. He forced _me_ to leave _him_ , to watch him and not be able to do anything about it.”

“I’m sure he thought it was the only way.”

“It wasn’t the only way. My father is a genius. He can figure his way out of anything. He could have found a way that didn’t hurt anybody.”

“Did he tell you why he was going to do it?”

“He didn’t tell me a fucking thing. He told me we were going to get out of there. He told me that he loved me, then he shot me into the sky and that was it. He told me that he loved me and then he left me.”

Asami looked to Opal for validation on how fucked up that was, but she was met with only a small smile. “Sometimes people do awful things to the people they love because they think it’s the only way to help them.”

“He used to be everything to me. He used to be the reason for everything I did, and he made me watch him die.”

“Yeah. My brother destroyed my hometown and imprisoned my family, and probably killed thousands of people from all over the world. His reasons are the same as your dad’s. They thought they were doing the right thing.”

“What fucking idiots.”

Opal laughed. “Yup.”

Bataar was probably back with his brothers now. They were probably holed up together somewhere, happy all to be safe but unable to look each other in the eye. They were probably thinking about Opal, wishing she was out of the streets and back with them. She realised how worried Opal must be about them, and about Su and Lin, still fighting.

“I’m really sorry.”

“Hey, no. No you’re not. You have nothing to feel sorry for, okay? None of this is your fault.”

“But you’re sitting here listening to me while your mom is still out there fighting. You should be with her.”

“I want to be here with you, I don’t want to sit around worrying about mom. I can’t do anything for her now that she’s gone into the colossus. She’s got Aunt Lin to look after her. And besides, you’re in the same boat. I’ve seen the way you look at Korra and she’s probably up there with Kuvira right now.”

Oh shit. Oh shit. _Korra._

She bolted upright so quickly that Opal fell backwards into the fountain. Where in the everloving spirits was Korra? What the fuck was wrong with her? How could she have _forgotten_ , even after everything that had happened, that Korra was out there trying to bring down an army? She had to go.

“I’m going to find her.”

 Opal shouted some high-pitched protest, but Asami was already scrambling to her feet and rounding the corner out of the square. She didn't think to say sorry, or thank you. The only thought in her mind was finding Korra as quickly as possible.

Thoughts of her father and the cavernous emptiness in her chest threatened to creep back to her, but she forced them away. She could see the trail of broken buildings and pillars of smoke leading to the downtown centre, so she followed them towards the little wilds created by the tangle of spirit vines. It felt right that the fight would lead to the centre of town, and Korra would finally face Kuvira there.

Asami grimaced as she remembered Korra's last standoff with Kuvira, and the shame and anger in her face as she had recounted her defeat. She tried not to let herself become despondent, but she was worried for Korra in a way that she couldn’t remember being before. Korra was the strongest person Asami knew, and still Asami was worried something would happen to her.

"Fucking damnit," she muttered as she vaulted over the remains of a new-model satomobile. The strength of her feelings for Korra certainly hadn't surprised Opal Beifong, so why did they surprise her?

She was getting close to the centre now. She rounded a corner down a lane servicing a line of stores and -

A flash of purple light. A strange metallic noise, like an explosion but also like the buzz of an insect or the hum of an engine. A liquid shaking in her legs as the ground began to come apart underneath her, cracking helplessly under the shockwaves tumbling towards her from the centre of town.

Asami cowered behind the wall of the shop until the light subsided, then sprinted as fast as she could towards the explosion. She barely noticed the glow of the portal, the beam spreading upwards like a pillar large enough to support the weight of the sky.

She wasn't alone when she finally reached the portal. Standing around her were all the others, Tenzin and his children, the police chief, Bolin. They were staring open-mouthed at the portal, but when Asami met their eyes she knew that they couldn't tell her what had happened, to the city or to Korra.

They wandered around and shouted for her for a few minutes, circling the portal as if they mind find her hidden behind it. Asami felt the fear creep into her skin. She wanted to tear it off.

Tenzin blustered and made out that Korra was definitely safe, and Asami, who usually felt nothing but respect for him, wanted to take him down with one of her father's equalist gloves. In that moment she wanted to take everyone down, everyone who had failed to keep Korra safe. She was glad when the moment passed.

They debated sending people into the portal. Asami volunteered immediately, but the elders refused. Chief Beifong commented that they knew nothing about the portal or what was on the other side. Asami considered running into the portal anyway.

Tenzin was the first to see her. "It's Korra!"

She came out of the portal with the light burning behind her, dragging another dark body over her shoulder. They passed out of the light and the body turned out to be Kuvira, alive but subdued somehow.

If they had been alone, Asami would have kissed Korra right there. Everyone began to move around them, fussing over Korra and dealing with Kuvira, and Asami watched her, drinking in the sight of her still strong and alive. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she contended herself with placing a hand on Korra's shoulder. She felt Korra soften under her touch, and felt herself melt a little in reply.

Kuvira was taken away and most of the bystanders drifted off to survey the damage. Kuvira's last few soldiers rounded themselves up and surrendered miserably to the police. Bolin and a few others came up to Asami, asked her if she was okay, but she told them all to leave her. She wanted to wait for Korra.

Tenzin stayed close to Korra, his pride and worry inflating in his robes like a puff of air. He had a thousand questions for her, and even though Asami had nothing to ask her, Korra's eyes kept drifting her way.

"Just a minute, Tenzin." Korra slipped away from him and over to where Asami stood. "I'm so glad you're okay."

 _Am I okay?_ Asami wondered. She didn't feel like it and she was certain she didn't look like it. She looked at Korra's tired face, her blue eyes warm and nourishing, and felt like she could be okay again. _Maybe I am okay._

"I feel like we should talk", Korra went on. She hadn't so much as touched Asami, standoffish in a way that wasn't like her. "So much happened today that I want to tell you. And I just...want to talk to you. I'm so glad you're okay. It's so good to see you."

Asami was too full of emotion to properly say anything, so she leaned forward and kissed Korra, soft and tired. The events of the day had drained her of her fear, and she was so relieved to see Korra alive that she didn’t care anymore. _Let it be. Let something good happen today._

When she drew back, Korra's face was horrified. Asami realised that she was probably covered in dirt and grime, and her stomach dropped. "I'm sorry!" She gasped. She searched for an explanation, touched on the events of the day and felt hot tears push themselves unwelcome into her eyes. "I just..."

Korra interrupted her by drawing her into her arms, holding her still and close. "It's okay. It's okay," she said, in a low soothing voice. They held each other for many minutes, and didn’t say anything more, until Korra drew back and looked guiltily over her shoulder.

"I really have to go and deal with Tenzin", she said. "But I'll be back. Or if you want, I can call you later. I'll come over. Or come to Air Temple Island."

"Okay," Asami said, smiling at the way Korra's words came tripping out of her mouth.

"Okay, you'll come to Air Temple Island with me?"

"Of course."

Korra smiled hugely and took Asami's hand. She lead her over to where Tenzin was waiting, and then away from the portal and back into the trashed city. Asami looked down at her hand, still clutching Korra’s, and wondered what okay would be like after this.


	2. 2. She knew what she wanted to do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Hiroshi's funeral, Korra wonders how to confront Asami.

Fire Nation funerals were fucking bizarre, though Korra expected that Hiroshi Sato’s was particularly strange. She was forced to sit on a chair alongside dozens of strangers in a small room that smelt of heady spices and decaying flesh, watching the bereaved family go through their rites as if she was watching a grotesque play. The rites themselves made no sense, and Korra didn't understand why she had to watch them, given that she hadn’t liked Hiroshi while he was alive. The immediate family stood up and knelt down and walked round the casket in long white robes like a flock of sinister birds, while a Fire Sage read out the biography of their dead family member in a booming voice.

_We lay to rest Hiroshi Sato. You were son of Min Li and Etka, both passed. You were husband to Yasuko, now passed. You were father to Asami._

The ceremony was supposed to be conducted by the immediate family together, but Hiroshi Sato had been the last of his line so everything fell to Asami. She looked small and pale standing kneeling alone next to the dark wood of the casket, which was fully sized despite the fact that there was nowhere near enough left of Hiroshi to fill it. The casket was closed, obviously, and covered with an assortment of spiky red flowers that would be burnt along with his body. Cremation suited Korra's Water Tribe tendencies just fine, but the fact that Hiroshi's remains were lying just a few feet away from her – _inside_ , without any windows or doors open at all – made her feel slightly sick. Looking at Asami made her feel even worse.

It had been in Hiroshi’s will that he wanted a Fire Nation funeral, in keeping with his mother’s family tradition. Nobody had forced Asami to take part, and Korra would have been happier if she had declined. But Asami agreed to it, saying only that Yasuko’s body had been lost the night she died and she wanted to say goodbye to at least one of her parents properly. If Hiroshi had died five years ago, before the equalists, his funeral would have been huge and well-attended, with enough mourners to fill the Fire Temple and pyres that lit up the Fire Nation quarter. As it was, there were only a dozen attendees, and most of them were there out of a sense of obligation to Asami.  Korra saw a few uncomfortable-looking businessmen, well dressed but clearly only farewelling Hiroshi to assuage their own consciences. _They must have been his friends once_ , Korra thought.

The Sage described Hiroshi's achievements in the field of engineering, his astounding financial success, his beautiful family, his heroic sacrifice in the battle for Republic City. He omitted Hiroshi's alliance with the equalists, his attempt to murder his daughter, his imprisonment. Korra understood the decision, but she couldn't help but feel it was an injustice. _I remember, Hiroshi. I remember what you did to her._

The Sage gave a formal farewell to Hiroshi, and Asami touched her forehead to the floor to acknowledge his entry into the hall of ancestors. She stood and the entire room followed suit to watch four robed attendants light the pyre under the casket. Korra wasn't sure how long they were supposed to watch the flames for, so she looked around and furtively spied on the people around her in the hopes of copying them. The first people to leave started to do so after a few minutes, but Korra decided to stay until Asami went back into the temple to change her robes.

She found a spot outside in the sun and lay back on the stones, breathing the cold air into her lungs and trying to relax. She knew that Mako and Bolin were here somewhere and they would probably come looking for her, but for the minute she was happy to be alone. In the Water Tribe, dead bodies were never brought inside, so that the spirit was free to leave at any time and wasn't trapped inside the house. The thought of how many bodies had been wheeled through that little red funeral room made her feel claustrophobic.

She had known that she would have to come to this for almost three weeks, since the day Kuvira attacked and Hiroshi died and the portal opened and Asami kissed her and slept in her bed. Asami had asked her, late at night, whether Korra would go to the funeral, and told her a little about all the tasks she would have to complete to be purified for the funeral morning. The idea of being purified for a funeral was unfamiliar, but Korra had listened to Asami's descriptions of the ritual baths and fasting and heard the firmness in her voice, even past midnight after she had cried herself to sleep and then cried herself awake. She felt guilty now for feeling so uncomfortable, since she could only imagine what Asami was feeling. Korra’s own father had offered to be at the funeral, just to support her.

The truth was that Korra had very little idea what was happening in Asami’s head, much less how to properly support her through it. Asami hadn't spent much time at Air Temple Island since that night, there had been too much to do clearing Hiroshi's estate and organising the relief effort. Despite everyone's insistence that Asami step back from her work, she had thrown herself into the reconstruction with all her energy and barely had time for anything else. She spent most days either at her workshop or out in the city, scoping out collapsed bridges and ruined buildings and planning ways to put them back together again. Whatever days she took for herself, she spent back at her parents’ house, clearing it out and directing the fleets of delivery vehicles which drove her parents’ belongings away to charity houses. Korra had gone with her once or twice, but Asami hadn’t seemed to want much help and became agitated when Korra suggested she hold on to some of her family’s effects.

“I don’t need any of this,” she had sighed. “Who could possibly need all of _this?_ I don’t want it.”

“What about this?” Korra said. It was a photo of the young Mr and Mrs Sato, smiling and looking very young at a party many years ago. Asami had snatched it from her hands, but relented when she recognised her mother’s face and added it to the small pile of artefacts to which she’d given clemency.

“I have enough photos of my parents”, she grumbled. “They just make me feel sad.”

“You might be grateful for them in the future,” Korra offered.

“Well if you know so well, I guess there’s no need for me to be here at all,” Asami muttered bitterly. She didn’t make any move to remove the photo from the clemency pile, but started throwing books into a donation box with increased violence. Korra had refrained from offering any more advice.

Korra sighed. The fact that she could barely convince Asami to open up about what heirlooms she wanted made her hesitant to broach the subject that had been on her mind almost without pause for the past three weeks. Asami hadn’t mentioned the kiss since the night after the invasion, and Korra had no idea what to do about it.

She knew what she _wanted_ to do. She had started waking up from feverish dreams in the dark hours of the morning, desperately aroused with Asami’s face in her mind. Her heart leapt into her throat like a teenager whenever someone mentioned Asami around her, and she had been invited to dozens of conferences on how best to deal with the Earth Kingdom and the reconstruction of the city at which she had been less than useless, lost thinking about Asami and the way her lips had felt as they brushed hers for the that tiny, golden, breathless moment. She spent so much of her time wondering what Asami was doing, and fretting about whether she was okay, and agonising about _what the fuck was going on_ between them that she herself barely knew what they we going to do about the Earth Kingdom. She expected Mako and Bolin knew more than she did, since Bolin had immediately stepped up to be useful in whatever way he could, and the slowly recovering Mako was desperately needed at the meetings for his experience in managing Wu.

The only person Korra had told about her predicament was Opal Beifong. She had wondered whether Tenzin had spotted Asami kissing her under the spirit portal, but he hadn’t mentioned anything so Korra assumed he had been conveniently lost in thought when it happened. She couldn’t confide in Mako about something like this (though the look on his face might have been worth it) and Bolin was so frantic with worry for his brother that she hadn’t wanted to burden him with her own problems.

Opal had seemed as lost as Korra felt in the days after the invasion, and had sought Korra out looking for a distraction from her own family. She had seemed especially interested in how Asami was doing, and looked surprised when Korra admitted she had no insight to share with her.

“Didn’t Asami go back home with you that night?” Korra had shot her a nervous glance, but Opal’s face was open and free of judgement.

“She did, but it wasn’t like _that._ ”

“I didn’t mean anything like that. What was it like?”

Korra cast her mind back. It had been a difficult day, and everyone had wanted Korra’s attention. Asami had looked so pale and fragile and Korra wanted to stay by her side as much as possible, but she kept being torn away by concerned adults or pressing responsibilities. She had come home from an emergency meeting with the police to find Asami curled up tightly in her bed, the pillow wet with tears, Naga keeping sentry in the corner. Korra’s heart had cried out at the sight of her.

“I don’t know how to comfort her,” Korra admitted. “I feel so useless. I’ve never had someone that close to me die before, I don’t know what I should say.”

“Have you talked to her about it?”

The thought of talking to Asami made Korra’s stomach twist. “No, of course I haven’t. I’m terrified of her.”

“Of Asami? Why on earth would you be scared of her?”

Abandoning her hopes of secrecy, Korra flung her hands over her face and moaned in frustration. “Because she kissed me, Opal, she kissed me on the _fucking mouth_ , and I now I don’t know what to do.”

Korra kept her face hidden behind her hands, her eyes scrunched tight to avoid having to look at Opal’s reaction. She couldn’t avoid it when Opal she flung herself into her, gripping her in a tight hug and bursting into peals of laughter.

“Korra, what are you worrying about? That’s the best news ever!”

“It is?” Korra peeked out at Opal through a minute crack in her fingers.

“Of course it is! Honestly Korra, everyone can see that you two are dying for each other.”

“ _Everyone_?”

“Well, not _Mako_ , but most everyone. Bolin called it.”

“He did?”

“He mentioned it years ago, before you even left for the South. He thinks you’re made for each other.”

“Oh.” Korra wasn’t sure how to take any of this.

“What I’m saying is, don’t worry. It’s clear that you and Asami care for each other and you’ve been through a lot together. Things will get easier. Just give it time.”

That was two weeks ago, and things definitely weren’t easy now. Asami hadn’t mentioned the kiss again, and the two of them had been so overwhelmingly busy that they had barely had a moment together to talk about how they were coping, let alone entertaining any idea of romance. Tenzin and Pema had made Asami her own room, so now Korra lay awake at night and remembered the smell of Asami’s hair, feeling lonely and pathetic for not knowing how to talk to her best friend. And then Asami would emerge from her room with dark circles under her eyes from crying through the night, and Korra would feel all the worse for being so preoccupied with the kiss, when Asami was trying to reconcile the rest of her life with the fact that her father had just died by his own hand in front of her eyes. What advice could Korra possibly have for her?

The sky above her suddenly darkened, as if heavy clouds had swept in to block the sun. When Korra opened her eyes, what she saw wasn’t a cloud but Bolin, his dark hair framed by the sun, his broad shoulders cutting a shadow from the sunlight that covered Korra’s whole body in shade.

Korra made an impatient motion for him to get out of her light, and he flopped down obediently beside her, stretching out and laying his head on his folded arms. “So, how’s it going?”

Korra groaned. “That was the worst funeral I’ve ever been to.”

“Aren’t they all supposed to be terrible?”

“This one was even more terrible than normal.”

“This was my first one,” Bolin said.

“Really?” Korra looked over at him but he didn’t meet her eyes, just gazed out at the sky. “What about when your parents died?”

“I didn’t go,” he replied. “I was only three years old. They tried to take me but I was too loud and I disrupted the ceremony.”

“That’s not fair,” Korra said, thinking back to the Water Tribe funerals she had attended as a child. When one of the tribe passed on, the body lay outside their village for a week to give the spirit time to depart and to give everyone who knew them a chance to say goodbye. It was a wholly personal but incredibly important experience, and the idea of denying anyone their chance to take part to make others more comfortable was antithetical to everything it stood for.

“I guess,” he said. “But nothing about it was really fair. At least we had a place to live back then.”

She was struck again by how little she was able to empathise with the others about things like this. She felt suddenly like she and Bolin were from different worlds, as she was completely unable to understand anything close to life as a homeless child in Republic City. She doubted there was a child alive who had been as devoutly catered to as she was. Maybe the Fire Nation princess.

“Where’s Mako?”

“He went home. He’s still not doing well enough to stay out for a long time, plus I think he enjoyed the funeral almost as much as you did.”

“I shouldn’t complain so much,” Korra muttered, feeling sullen and guilty. “Fire Nation ceremonies are just so strange to me. And I don’t want to have anything to do with Hiroshi Sato, even if he is dead. And I feel terrible for Asami, and I don’t know what to say to make her feel better.”

“Is she still staying with you?”

“I think so. She spends most of her time at work, or back at her old place.”

“I think she’s almost finished with the mansion now. She told me she’s planning on putting it on the market in a few weeks.”

“Wait, she’s _selling_ it?” Korra jerked upright. “Since when? Where is she going to live?”

Bolin looked sheepish. “She’s...she’s buying an apartment. In the city. Across the bridge from Air Temple Island don’t look at me like that I’m sorry Opal told me!”

“Asami told Opal?” Korra was despondent. She tried not to let her jealousy show on her face, because it made her feel like a child. _Okay, so Asami has been talking to Opal. Why shouldn’t Asami talk to Opal? I’ve_ _been talking to Opal._

“It’s okay! Asami told Opal that she’s not upset with you!”

“Asami’s been talking about me?” Korra shot him a look of abject dismay, and he shrunk back from it, raising his hands as if to protect himself from her misery.

“No! I mean yes, but not in a _bad_ way. In a good way! Well, in the way that means she really wants to be talking to you but doesn’t know how to, and I should really not have told you any of this!”

“Bolin!”

“I promised Opal that I wouldn’t, and now I’m already the worst boyfriend of all time! But hey, tell you what. Are you going to the wake tonight?”

Korra threw her hands over her face in exasperation. “ _Yes,_ I am going to Hiroshi Sato’s _crazy Fire Nation funeral party_ tonight _.”_

“Great! Because I’m going, and Opal’s going, and Asami’s going – well, obviously Asami’s going – and you can talk to her there! And then if it doesn’t work you can come and talk to us instead! Not that it won’t work, of course it will work. You and Asami are great together. Great friends. Together.”

“ _Bolin!”_

“Aww, Opal is going to kill me!” Bolin was trying his hardest to look apologetic, but the glint in his eye betrayed the fact that he was close to breaking out in laughter.

“You cannot tell Asami about any of this. I will actually kill you. I will kill you and bring you back to life and then make Opal kill you again. And then I’ll punch you so hard you forget how to earthbend. I mean it.”

“Okay, okay, I promise. I really promise.”

Korra punched him anyway. “I cannot _believe_ you guys were saying this shit about me.”

Bolin punched her back, just lightly enough to topple her onto the ground. “We’re just worried about you. We want you to be happy.”

The absurdity of Bolin and Opal, who had both been through so much in the past few months, sitting around worrying about whether _she_ was okay, was enough to make Korra want to earthbend herself underground.  She let Bolin pull her upright and fold her into a hug. “Thanks, Bolin. You’re...you’re amazing. I love you.”

Bolin made a happy noise, and hugged her tighter. “Not as much as you love _Asami”_ , he whispered.

Korra might have earthbent Bolin under the ground right there, if her parents hadn’t taught her that tearing apart religious buildings was bad manners. When Asami finally came out to find them, they had wrestled away their restless energy and were lying in the sun, chatting about nothing and making bets about which species of birds would win in a fight.

Bolin gave Asami his biggest, most luminous smile, and lifted her completely off the ground with the force of his embrace. Asami smiled back, the biggest smile Korra had seen her make in weeks. Bolin made cheering up Asami look effortless.

“Will you come back with me today?” Korra offered.

Asami shook her head. “I have to go in to the office for a few hours.”

“Okay, then will I see you tonight?”

“Yes!” Asami looked surprised. “You don’t have to go to that if you don’t-”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Of course I’ll go. Bolin and Opal are coming too.”

Asami smiled. It was small and sad, but still a smile. She was so incomprehensibly beautiful. “Thanks, you guys.”

“Of course. We love you!”

Asami looked straight at Korra with an unreadable expression that made Korra’s insides turn to liquid. “I love you too. I’ll see you tonight.”

She waved, and made her way down to where her car was parked. Korra watched her go, partly just to watch her, but mostly to avoid looking at Bolin, who was undoubtedly making heart eyes at her behind her back.

“Don’t. Say. Anything.”


End file.
